By the Sea

Omer Coppens was a French-Belgian painter, watercolourist, lithographer, etcher, and ceramic artist. Born in Dunkirk in 1864 to Flemish parents from the Geraardsbergen area, he is known for his Impressionist and Orientalist style, with a notable influence from Art Nouveau. He painted genre scenes, landscapes, seascapes, and town views, and was particularly drawn to the picturesque character of Flanders.

Coppens studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Ghent in 1883 and at the Academy of Saint-Josse-ten-Noode in 1884. He held his first exhibition in Ghent in 1885. In 1888, he began contributing etchings to the albums of the Société des Aquafortistes Belges. In 1905, he exhibited at the Exposition Nationale des Beaux-Arts at the Ostend Centre d’Art.

Throughout his life, Coppens travelled extensively, working in southern France, Italy, and Morocco. After World War I, he visited several southern countries and North Africa, where he created light-filled, sun-drenched Impressionist works. Initially a realist painter, he gradually embraced a more localised Impressionism under the influence of his friend Théo van Rysselberghe, who painted at least one oil portrait of Coppens. His early realist brushwork evolved toward a more expressive handling of light and atmosphere.

Coppens had a deep connection to the Flemish countryside and urban landscapes, particularly Bruges, where some of his finest works were painted. He excelled in capturing poetic and atmospheric corners of the city, often with metallic tonalities that, while sometimes austere, added depth and mood. Notable works include Autumn Morning in Bruges (on trust to Nieuwpoort Town Hall), Vespers (held by the Brussels Museum), and several pieces in the Bruges Museum collection.

He exhibited widely in Brussels, Paris, Antwerp, Ghent, Bordeaux, Munich, and Venice. In 1898, The Magazine of Artnoted, “Coppens loves and depicts moonlit scenes, where the whiteness of the houses is tempered with a greenish blue.” He also took part in the 1910 Brussels Universal Exhibition.

Coppens was a founding member and secretary of the artistic circle Pour l’Art and a member of both L’Essor and the Cercle artistique et littéraire de Bruxelles—important artistic societies of the period.

In 2001, the Rouge-Cloître Art Centre in Brussels organised a retrospective titled Omer Coppens or the Dream of Art Nouveau, in collaboration with the Free University of Brussels, the Royal Museums of Art and History, the Horta Museum, and the International Centre for the Study of the 19th Century.

Omer Coppens died in Ixelles in 1926. His obituary in The Connoisseur described him as “the earnest interpreter of the urban scene” and highlighted his prominence within the Pour l’Art movement.

He was also the father of Willy Coppens, the World War I flying ace who achieved the highest number of aerial victories among Belgian pilots.